Library delivery trends and some thoughts on ILL

People like our stuff.  They like other libraries' stuff too.  And they ask for it.  Good for them!  Lori Bowen Ayre has a thoughtful piece about the changing patterns of library delivery: Trends Putting Greater Demands on Library Delivery (here's a direct link to the actual PDF report).  Formal resource sharing is growing.  We are unionizing more and more.  The numbers of resource sharing and inter-library delivery are going up...way up.   The most salient point from her summary is this:

Increasingly, library users expect an easy-to-use, transparent system for locating and requesting library material for delivery anywhere. They expect service comparable to Amazon and NetFlix. What users would like is to select items for themselves, specify where and when they need it and to be kept informed of the status of the requested item.

This "easy to use" model applies not just to delivery-bound items, but to resource-finding at the local level as well.  This is what our users expect.  Are we giving it to them? 

• Is your ILL form out there on your public website?  No?  Is it hidden under your policies or some such?  Or not even mentioned on the website?  Why not?
• Is your ILL procedure and instructions linked in your catalog?  Particularly on results pages, specifically those "no results found" or "no exact matches" found pages?  No?  Why not?
• Do you cooperate with other local libraries to share a catalog or at least afford each others patrons borrowing privileges?  No?  Why not?

Some things to think about this fine Thursday evening...